


West of Westeros

by drownedphoenix



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Arya Stark, Canon Continuation, Crossover, I don't even know what this is going to be, I don't know, Read at Your Own Risk, What tags are even relevant?, abandoned, but i repeat this is an ABANDONED FIC, i'll add tags as i go, it was meant to be longer, kind of, maybe you can still read it as a oneshot?, no beta we die like characters with ignored redemption arcs, sorry - Freeform, this work is officially
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 17:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22347085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drownedphoenix/pseuds/drownedphoenix
Summary: Set after the events of Game of Thrones Season Eight. (Minor Spoilers)When Arya Stark left Westeros, she wanted to go west, to new lands. But her travels took her further than she ever imagined.Arya Stark meets the Avengers.*renamed from 'Skyscraper Castles'
Relationships: Arya Stark & Natasha Romanov, Arya Stark & Pepper Potts, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 7
Kudos: 70





	West of Westeros

What's west of Westeros?

It had been difficult to find a ship to take her. Arya had searched for a long time, travelled to just about every port in the Seven Kingdoms. She had bartered, bribed, and threatened, but nobody was willing to take her away into those unknown waters. She had been north of the Wall, where she had met with a promising band of pirates and traders along the coast North of the Shadow Tower, but they had proved themselves good for little but boasting and bragging. She had spoken with them for hours, trying to reach an arrangement, but after a while it had become clear that they were interested in nothing but talking her around and around in circles, utterly wasting time. Later she discovered that their boat was little more than a glorified raft with canvas hanging in tatters from the mast - not at all suitable for the calibre of adventure she sought.

Eventually, she did leave Westeros, but not to the West, as she had planned. She booked passage on a ship headed east, to Myr. From there, she journeyed south with a band of travelling entertainers, to Volantis. Then, after a particularly unpleasant incident involving some slavers, she eventually found her way past Slavers Bay - which was now know as the 'Bay of Fallen Dragons' and had devolved into a cesspool of fighting between the Second Sons left by the fallen Mother of Dragons herself and the Harpies who hoped to restore it to its former ‘glory’ - and journeyed by horse for many months until she arrived in Quarth.

It was there, amidst an orchard whose trees Arya had been unburdening of their strange fruits, that Arya met a red priest of R'hllor, who approached her with masked intentions and offered her accompaniment through the Jade Gates and away to the distant and mysterious shores of Asshai by the Shadow. Strapping on her boots and taking a bite from a strange pink fruit with white flesh and dark seeds, Arya had barely hesitated before agreeing.

The journey across the Jade Sea had been long, yet strangely uneventful. Arya wondered at times, why the Red Priest had approached her. She could only assume that she was being somehow recruited to join the somewhat fanatical worshippers of R'hllor. Perhaps they didn't know of Arya's ongoing dedication to the Many-Faced God, whose service she never truly left. After all, the cities she travelled to were never entirely devoid of angry, pink-faced men deserving of justice, and if a few of them never woke again after endangering Arya's travelling companions of the time, who would notice?

In Asshai, Arya saw many strange and inexplicable things. She witnessed great and terrible deeds, miracles and horrors wrought of fire and shadow. More often, however, she was preached at. She was told of the great prophecies and powers of the Red God, of the exploits of his servants, of intriguing secrets revealed in flame, of the future and the mysteries of the world. She even believed some of the things she heard there might have been true.

The greatest mystery, however, remained unsolved.

What is west of Westeros?

She asked this of one of the Red Priests, one day.

"What is west of Westeros?"

The answer she received was only another riddle.

"If it is West you seek, journey East. Only when South is North and East is West, will you learn that answer. Your journey is not yet ended, child, yet you may find it leads you not to where you expect. The Lord of Light casts his shadows long, and many things fall into them. Things cloaked in darkness may not be seen, only discovered. And the night is dark and full of terrors."

Then the priest led her down to a crypt, where the ashes were kept of those who had passed in Asshai. Urns filled with them marched endlessly into the darkness. The air was still and deadly cold - it reminded Arya of home.

"Here is the domain of the Other."

Then the priest raised a lantern and lit the oil within.

"And here is the power of our Lord."

Then he pointed to the end of the crypt, which lay in shadow. Nothing was visible save a deep, velvety blackness.

"If it is adventure you seek, go forward, into the shadow. Uncover a truth of R'hllor."

And so, Arya walked steadily down the rows and rows of ashes, her head held high, until she could not even see her own hands before her face. Then, she turned to look back the way she had come, only to find the red priest had disappeared, and the light with him. She was left in shadow.

Carefully, she crept forward again, stepping lightly and without sound, holding her arms before her, so that she wouldn't knock any ashes, though she never did. She walked for ages but never sensed anything. No sound, or smell of any kind. Only blackness.

After a while, she lowered her arm and walked confidently, almost running through the darkness until, suddenly, everything went white and there was light above her. She looked up into it, and it wasn't red or fiery at all. It was purely white, and perfectly round and blindingly, blindingly bright.

Arya tried to raise her arms to shield her eyes, but found that she couldn't move them, tried to step forwards but was suddenly falling back.

Everything shifted and suddenly there was something soft below her back and she was lying looking up at a small sun directly above her, against a strange white sky.

She felt a hand against her cheek and looked across to see who it belonged to. The hand immediately withdrew.

It had been a soft hand, a woman's hand. She had hair that was a colour hanging somewhere between blonde and red, and smiled at Arya, who was lying on a comfortable bed.

"Oh, good. You're awake. We were wondering when you would come to."

Arya tried to sit up, but the woman objected.

"Easy, easy, take it slowly, now. We aren't quite sure what's going on with you yet. They're still running the tests," she said gently.

"Who are you?" Arya asked, taking in her surroundings. She was inside a room. The light she had taken for a sun was actually only some strange kind of lamp. Arya dismissed it as the witchcraft of the red priests, although the room did seem to be too white for R'hllor's worshippers, who preferred crude darkness.

There were strange tubes and things all around her. Like intestines that had been made transparent and hung up to dry on metal poles that shone like polished steel.

"My name is Pepper Potts. Don't worry I'm going to help you."

Arya was not at all relieved by that statement, but she didn't show it, choosing to leave her expression blank and indifferent.

"What happened? I didn't learn anything special like the priest said I would. Why did they have me go down there?" Then she looked closer at the woman, the pretty - albeit odd - clothes she wore. "You don't look like one of them."

"One of who, sweetie? The Avengers?" Pepper laughed. "I’m not one of them - not really. I just tend to get mixed up in their business from time to time. Why don't you tell me more about this priest person? Is he the one who sent you?" She looked genuinely concerned, but Arya didn't trust so easily as that.

She said nothing.

"It's okay, sweetie, you can tell me. I'm here to help - I'm going to look after you."

Arya didn't believe that for a moment but decided it would be better to use the conversation to her advantage than to let it go to waste.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"You're in the Avengers Tower," the woman said gently.

Arya had never heard of a place like that anywhere north or east of Sothoryos and the Summer Sea. Then again, perhaps it was only a small and obscure tower, not a true one, like those of faraway Westeros.

"In the land of the Shadow?" The people of Asshai preferred low buildings to towers, but she could not dismiss the possibility.

Pepper faltered for a moment, then laughed nervously. "Is that what they're calling this place now?"

"Where am I?" she asked again, with growing unease.

"Manhattan."

"Where is Manhattan?"

"New York City."

"And where is that?"

"…America?"

The woman seemed very confused at this stage. Arya was even more so.

"What's your name, darling?"

Arya wondered if she should lie but decided against it. She had spent enough time lying about who she was. She was a Stark of Winterfell, for now and for ever. She would lie about a million things – about anything – but she would not lie about that.

"Arya. My name's Arya."

"Whereabouts are you from, Arya?"

"A place far from here, I should imagine." Arya wondered if, somehow, she had come to some remote place in the world unknown by the Maesters of the Seven Kingdoms.

Perhaps she was west of Westeros. The thought amused her.

The woman sighed. "Well I suppose I'd better call in the others to have a chat with you," she said, then left the room, leaving Arya alone.

Arya checked herself over. She still had all her clothes, but they had taken Needle from her, as well as her Valyrian Steel dagger. She pushed herself out of the bed and was walking unsteadily to a window when a door opened abruptly. A man walked in. He wore clothes unlike those of any land she had travelled to, as the woman - Pepper - had. He carried Needle.

"Hey, there," he said, smiling widely. Arya could tell at once that it was fake. "How you doing there?"

Arya didn't say anything. She imagined all the ways she could grab Needle from him. He didn't seem very fast or particularly skilled - not too much of a challenge.

"You want to explain why you were found lying on top of our building? How you got past our security?"

"I don't know anything about that."

"It's okay, you can tell me. Whoever sent you, we can protect you from them," he said, walking forward. Good. Keep him coming towards you.

"There was a man, who sent me here. He told me to kill you people, and how to get past the security," she said, because it seemed that was what the man expected to hear. It was easy to lie, like slipping into someone else’s skin. Like wearing someone else’s face.

The man stepped forward again, looking like he was trying to tame a wild animal.

"Who are you?" she asked him.

"I'm Tony. Tony Stark. You might know me as Iron Man, I'm probably the one you were told to -," he was cut off.

Arya had stopped listening after the word 'Stark'. She lunged for Needle, nimbly grabbing it off him before he could react then directing it straight towards his neck.

He stumbled backward in surprise, arms raised as though in surrender.

"What do you want?" Arya asked forcefully.

The man never had a chance to reply, however as a flood of people burst into the room, rushing at Arya. She ducked and wove between them, making straight for the door, but somebody grabbed her and dragged her back to the bed.

They bound her to it and took Needle away again.

* * *

"Who do you think she is?" Pepper Potts asked Tony from their safe vantage point outside the girl's room. She was tied down to the bed, wrists and ankles restrained, but had stopped struggling a while ago. Now she was just lying there, watching them through the window.

"I don't know. Probably got roped into working for one of our enemies somehow. The real question is which one - at this stage I think we have too many to count."

Pepper laughed. "Yes, well I suppose it's one the hazards of the job. What did she say to you?"

"Only that she was told to kill us and how to get in by some man. She didn't even seem to recognise me though. It was only after I told her who I was that she attacked."

"Huh. So, definitely working for someone. Who makes someone so young their assassin, though? I mean for one thing – she’s barely an adult by the looks of it, she shouldn't have to deal with this kind of thing. But for another - it doesn't seem like the best way to get a job done, does it?"

"I don't know. But I'll talk to Happy about the security issue. Sounds like they might have someone planted on our end. In the meantime, keep an eye on her, yeah?"

Pepper nodded, and Tony left. As he disappeared around a corner, Natasha Romanoff came around another one.

"Hi, Pepper. How's it going? I hear they found a girl on the roof. Is that true?" she asked.

"See for yourself." Pepper indicated the window into the room. She relayed everything that Tony and she had seen of the girl since her waking up. "We need to find out more before we can make any decisions, but it seems like she was sent by someone to kill us - or to kill the Avengers at least. I don't know what went wrong, though, or how she ended up passed out on the roof."

Natasha nodded. "Let me talk to her."

Pepper thought it over. The assassin stood a better chance than the rest of them at extracting information, so she agreed, but only on the condition that Pepper be inside the room too. "Maybe I can help calm her down if need be. Besides, I trust that you can protect me from her."

The two women entered the room.

Immediately Arya's eyes were on them.

Natasha took a seat by the young lady's side, and Pepper settled into her own in the corner.

"Hello. They tell me your name is Arya - is that right?" Natasha asked cautiously.

Arya studied her closely. "It is."

"And do you have another name too? A family name?"

The girl looked her up and down. "Ask your friend out there. He knows it," she said.

Natasha shared a look with Pepper; neither had a clue what she meant by that.

"You mean Tony?"

"That's what he called himself."

"He's not coming back in here, if that's what you were hoping for," Pepper broke in.

The girl said nothing, only looked back to Natasha.

"We just want to help you, to find out what's going on here," Pepper was saying. But Arya wasn't listening, eyes still fixed on Natasha.

"Let's play a game," she said suddenly. "It's easy. You tell me something about yourself, and then I tell you something about myself. You go first."

"Alright," Natasha agreed quickly.

"What's your name?" the girl asked.

"Natasha. Now my turn. How old are you?"

She took a moment to reply, as though calculating. "Two-and-twenty, by my count. Where were you born?"

"Vladivostok, Russia," Natasha lied. A small, harmless white lie for the sakes of whoever was watching the exchange. She couldn’t have too much information about her past floating around. "Why did you attack Tony before?"

"I wanted the sword back. Have you ever used a sword before?"

"No," Natasha lied again, this time for Arya’s sake. "Where did you get that sword from?"

"It was never my sword. I stole it from you people just before. I was going to use it to kill you."

"Why did you want to kill us?"

"It's not your turn, but I'll answer anyway. I didn’t want to, I was told to. Now I get two questions. How do you two know each other, and who else is watching me right now?"

Natasha waited a moment before replying carefully. "We… work together, at times. And there's only one other person watching us at the moment. From the window." She gestured to the door where Clint Barton stood watching his partner-in-crime through the glass. He had been there for only a few moments but seemed ready to barge in at the first sign of danger. "My turn. How did you get inside the tower?"

"I used milk-of-the-poppy on your guards. Then I used my mind powers to sneak up the stairs onto the roof. I'm actually a warg, you know. Have you lied to me?"

"Wait a moment - mind powers? Poppies? And what's a warg? What do you mean by all that?"

"You didn't answer my question. Did you lie to me?" The woman - who apparently was older than she looked - asked calmly, face unchanging.

Natasha looked back at Pepper, perplexed and wondering how to answer, then to Clint, standing just outside the door ready to rush in at a moments’ notice. The thought reassured her enough to answer honestly.

"I did."

"As did I."

Natasha was surprised, to say the least. She had been watching the girl's face carefully the entire time and was sure that she hadn't been deceived. Even if the things she said had seemed strange, she was sure that Arya had believed them all.

"How many lies did you tell?" she asked.

"How many did you tell?" Arya replied.

Natasha thought back over the conversation. "Four."

"Eight."

From the corner, Pepper shifted in her seat.

"What were your lies?" Arya asked.

Natasha looked towards the door again, then to the corner of the ceiling where a small camera was concealed. "Your first question: I go by Natasha, but it isn't my only name - a half-lie. Your third question: I have used a sword before. And your fifth question: I don't know who is watching us. There are cameras everywhere in the tower, and I don't know how many people watch them. What about you?"

"You forgot one. The place you were born - you lied about that too." Arya said matter-of-factly.

Natasha was impressed. “Alright, I did,” she conceded. “Now your turn.”

"I said I attacked your friend because I wanted the sword back. A half-truth. I said it was never my sword, that I stole it from you. I lied. It has always been my sword. I said I was going to use it to kill you. Another lie, though I still might. I said I was told to kill you. A lie. I said I used milk of the poppy and mind powers to get inside your tower. Lies. I said I was a warg. That one might have been true, had things gone differently, but the way things are – a lie."

"That's quite the number of lies, there. Are you sure none of it is true?" Pepper asked from her corner, rising and walking toward the bed.

"Quite sure."

"Alright, then. Would you give us a moment?" Pepper walked out the door and Natasha followed her out.

They joined Clint outside the door.

"Who is this girl?" he asked.

“That seems to be the question,” Natasha replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think in the comments. Should I continue this?


End file.
